Volume 7, Issue 1,
March 2014

Some years ago, the CSIR embarked on a project to upgrade the information technology system that underpins some of its core functions. Behind the team that successfully completed this project on time and within budget, was Neo Motsisi, a woman who knows how to carefully balance her management role with her passion for the technology-based profession of computer science.

"To be really good at cyber defence, you need to think like a hacker." This is the advice of Angel Shozi, a software developer at the CSIR, who specialises in cybercrime and coming up with cyber defence solutions.

Nowadays, children tap away on tablets even before they reach school age, but this was not the case for CSIR future wireless technology researcher, Mofolo Mofolo. It is hard to believe that this future wireless technology researcher saw a computer for the first time when he entered high school.

A healthy dose of curiosity seems to be the recurring theme for those wanting to become chemical engineers. At least, that is what Kersch Naidoo, a chemical engineer at the CSIR, believes. For him, it started at primary school where his natural interest in chemistry and physics was driven further by a curiosity to know how things are made. "I liked the practical side of chemistry, especially when it is used to make products, and my passion for chemistry and physics eventually led me to chemical engineering," says Naidoo.

An enterprise development specialist focuses on specific methods and processes, which are necessary to ensure that new enterprises become sustainable businesses that improve the quality of life of communities. The CSIR's team of enterprise development specialists focuses on the use of science and technology solutions to address poverty and underdevelopment. Clients include all tiers of government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector.

Space law is an area of the law that encompasses national and international law governing activities in outer space. As the so-called last frontier, space has become an internationally contested domain. Lulu Makapela says, "I was drawn to a field that is changing every day, providing an opportunity to keep up with events."